Black-clad, masked assailants torched a German cultural centre in crisis-hit Togo today, while the man officially named winner of violently contested presidential elections vowed not to let the country slip into civil war.

Faure Gnassingbe, official winner of Sunday’s vote, denounced the attacks of recent days and assured the world that Togo was not on the fast track to civil war – long the destructive route of its West African neighbours.

“I have confidence in the forces of order and security and, most of all, in the political maturity and good sense of the Togolese,” Gnassingbe said today.

“I do not think Togo will tip into civil war,” he told French daily Le Monde. “Not, at least, as long as I am at the head of this country.”

Opposition leaders in Togo insisted Gnassingbe’s ruling party rigged the elections and preordained a victory for Gnassingbe, the son of Togo’s late dictator who died on February 5.

Tuesday’s announcement of Gnassingbe’s win sparked two days of clashes that left at least 22 dead nationwide.

Daytime violence subsided yesterday in the capital, Lome, but overnight assailants had attacked a German institute promoting cross-cultural exchange – the latest post-election violence that targeted foreigners.

The attack on the Goethe Institute in the Togolese capital was well-executed, the centre’s Director Herwig Kempf said.

The gunmen, dressed all in black and wearing masks, forced their way inside the centre’s steel gates and beat two guards before sending them running away, Kempf said, citing the guards’ accounts. The gunmen then opened fire on the white, art-deco building and set fire to the first-floor library. The fire engulfed most of the building.

Gunmen also torched a van parked in the courtyard, as well as a large toolshed. No one was injured in the attack, though damage was estimated at several hundred thousand pounds.

Through films, book-lending and language lessons, the Goethe Institute promotes cultural exchange between Togo and Germany, Togo’s one-time colonial master.

Talk had been circulating of an attack on a German institution since Togo’s former Interior Minister Francois Boko fled to the German Embassy on April 22, Kempf said. Boko had been dismissed after calling for the weekend elections to be cancelled for fear of bloodshed.

In Berlin, German officials summoned Togo’s ambassador to the Foreign Ministry.

The ministry “expressed the expectation of the German government that the government in Lome will do everything to track down the perpetrators of the attack and prevent further attacks,” ministry spokeswoman Antje Leendertse said.

The West African regional body known as ECOWAS denounced the attack today and said it was sending a delegation to Togo’s capital tomorrow.

The delegation would be investigating other attacks in Lome against African immigrants living there, the bloc said in a statement. Eight workers from Niger were burned alive in their home on Tuesday by opposition supporters, Togo’s Interior Minister Foli Bazi Katari said.

Several Nigerian residents living in Lome’s opposition neighbourhoods also claimed this week to have been attacked by rioting youths, angered by the announcement from Nigeria-based ECOWAS that the elections had been fair and transparent.

“This action, combined with other reported acts of aggression, harassment and intimidation of foreigners, including ECOWAS citizens, are worrisome,” the statement said.

Gnassingbe today denounced the killings of guest workers, and told Le Monde the attacks had been organised by opposition-party cadres.

“People who engage in these types of almost barbarous acts were trained, manipulated by the opposition,” Gnassingbe was quoted as saying.

UN officials said thousands of Togolese have fled to neighbouring Benin and Ghana since strife broke out. Refugees were staying in relief camps, church grounds and with host families, Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters in Geneva.

The agency “is urging Togolese politicians to find a peaceful resolution to the current crisis, and to avoid triggering a humanitarian emergency,” Redmond said. “We are closely monitoring the situation.”

Togo tipped into crisis when Eyadema’s February death of a heart attack ended his 38-year reign – Africa’s longest and second worldwide only to Fidel Castro’s leadership in Cuba.

Loyalists in the military named the deceased leader’s son as new president, but Gnassingbe agreed to step down and run in elections under heavy pressure from African and other international leaders.